Offers up by 50-70 per cent; stipend up by 35-40 per cent.
Hectic placement activity on B-school campuses may still be far away, but the institutions are closing in on the peak summer placement numbers of 2007. More companies, more offers and better stipends are some of the benefits that are on offer for business school students.
“It has been easier to invite companies this year. We have also seen new firms and fresh profiles being offered to students which, at a summer internship level, are quite challenging. What’s more, we could place all the 120 students in four days,” said Saurabh Bansal, placement committee member at Mumbai-based Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS).
JBIMS has witnessed several first timers on its campus for the summer internships, including Reliance Industries and Schlumberger, apart from the regular investment banks.
The highest domestic stipend at JBIMS stood at Rs 1.50 lakh against Rs 1.10 lakh in 2009 — an increase of 36 per cent.
Out of the total 114 students who opted for final placements, 30 students have been offered pre-placement offers. About 50 per cent of these students have already converted their offers and the remaining are being interviewed, the institute said in a press statement.
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At Jamshedpur-based Xavier Labour Relations Institute, the present batch of 240 students have got 307 offers. The number of recruiters who participated in the process increased by 27 per cent. The average stipend for the internship period this year was Rs 1.12 lakh — an increase of 26 per cent over last year. Aditya Birla Group and Goldman Sachs were the largest summer recruiters with 10 offers each.
The highest international offer was made by an investment bank for its trading desk in Singapore that stood in excess of Rs 5 lakh.
“This year not only saw the participation of new companies but also the emergence of new sectors. We are very optimistic going forward, and these are definitely positive upwards signals for the coming few quarters as well. The improvement in the general economy is well reflected in the way the recruitment has happened over the past week,” said Rajiv Misra, chairperson, placements, at XLRI Jamshedpur.
In terms of profiles, students are being offered positions in treasury management, structure finance, and mergers and acquisitions, to name a few. Stipends have also seen a rise this year for the summer internships.
At the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, (IIM-L) 417 placement offers were made by 151 firms — up by 75 per cent over the previous year, when close to 240 offers were made. Out of these, 123 offers were made in the coveted slot zero.
Key recruiters on the campus include McKinsey & Co, The Boston Consulting Group, Tata Administrative Services, Hindustan Unilever, Procter and Gamble, Aditya Birla Group and Cadbury- Kraft, among others.
The buoyancy in summer placements also reflects IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A)’s preparations. The premier B-school is replicating its cohort-based system, which was introduced during final placements last year, for its upcoming summer placements process from November 12.
“Summer placements are important because such hiring helps firms to build a pipeline for the future, which is reflected in pre-placement offers (PPOs). The cohort-based system is being introduced to allow companies to check their relationship with the students. And because summer internships are not final placements, the risk is low. We are expecting a buoyant summer placements process because we are in a different situation than what we were two years ago,” says Saral Mukherjee, chairperson, placements, IIM-A.
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore begins its process for summer placements on November 8.